Photo: Ann Weru/IRIN

The remote location of Lake Turkana away from the main fish markets (especially Nairobi) makes fishing a less than lucrative activity for the fishing community

KALOKOL,  – Kalokol fish-landing bay in Kenya’s northwestern Turkana region is a hive of activity when the fish come in: Women fishmongers jostle for bargains as they seek to buy smaller fish to sell at the local market, while waiting middlemen rush to load the best fish into their vehicles.

“There is no storage for the fish so they [the fishermen] wait to sell the fish to brokers… The fishermen handle the fish just up to the shore,” James Eregor, a Lake Turkana boat operator, told IRIN.

Many of the brokers, who are reluctant to have their photos taken, have come up from Kitale, about 300km to the south – a journey that can take days due to the poor state of the road, but profits can be high given that a plate of fish in a typical Nairobi restaurant sells for the equivalent of US$4-6.

“We sell 1kg of fish at 40 or 50 shillings [48-60 US cents]. Nile Perch is more expensive [about $1.68 per kg], but the bulk buyers make a lot more money,” said David Koiya, a fisherman. “If there was a fish market and cold storage facilities and a good road, then the local fishing population would benefit.”

The lack of such facilities means fishermen on Lake Turkana are forced to dispose of their catch promptly.

“The fish we catch here is just for the stomach, it is not for profit. If this fish is not sold today, we will throw it into the bush,” fisherman Paul Lopotio told IRIN.

Fishing costs are considerable. “A net is used in the lake for about a month before it is replaced. Then I pay other people who help me to fish; I buy fuel for the boat and I also pay the owner of the fishing boat,” explained Lopotio.

“When it is windy, we may even catch no fish and the children end up sleeping hungry. But there is nothing else for us to do here; fish is the staple food and it helps us to buy other foods.

“When it rains, drying the fish under the sun in the local market also becomes difficult and the fish rot.”

The situation of fishermen in Kalokol is replicated across Lake Turkana. At Eleyi beach, for example, fisherman Michael Lokotor said: “Before there was a fish market but it was closed five years ago. For now, we dry the fish in the sun before selling them to a wholesale buyer who comes by boat from Kalokol.”

Poor roads in the Turkana region, characteristic of much of the northern Kenya region, mean a lack of access to markets in a region where livelihood opportunities are limited and poverty rife.

Well-to-do fish buyers from Nairobi and other urban centres with refrigerated trucks benefit most from the catch.

“Sometimes it takes two weeks to fill the truck, which carries five tons of fish. Some of the fish is brought here by car or ‘boda boda’ (motorbike taxi),” said John*, the driver of a refrigerated truck who had set up camp in Kalokol.

Falling water levels

Fishing in Lake Turkana is becoming more of a challenge as water levels in the lake are falling due to perennial drought, as well as evaporation and siltation, according to the Kenya’s Fisheries Ministry.

The fish we catch here is just for the stomach, it is not for profit. If this fish is not sold today, we will throw it into the bush

Environmentalists warned recently that ongoing damming activities on the River Omo, the main river supplying Lake Turkana, could adversely affect water levels and consequently the livelihoods of thousands dependent on the lake. Lake Turkana produces about 200,000 tons of fish annually.

According to Godfrey Monor, director of fisheries in the Fisheries Ministry, poor infrastructure and insecurity have hampered efforts to provide market access to fishermen, but he said things were improving: “There are initiatives to introduce solar [fish] driers, and fishermen are also being sensitized on how to produce sun-dried salted fish,” he said.

A private partnership between Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to provide a ready market for the sun-dried salted fish.

“There is also a private developer who is putting up a cold storage facility in Lodwar [main town in the region],” said Monor, adding that the government is also helping to initiate irrigation schemes around the lake to help fishermen to diversify their income streams.

*not a real name

aw-ko/cb source www.irinnews.org

A swearing-in ceremony will be held for Ms Fatou Bensouda, the new Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), on 15 June 2012, from 11:00 to 11:30 in ICC Courtroom I. Ms Bensouda will make a brief speech after she is sworn in.

Ms Fatou Bensouda was elected ICC Prosecutor by the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute on 12 December 2011 for a term of nine years. She succeeds Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Court’s first Prosecutor.

On 15 June, ASP President H.E. Tiina Intelmann will administer the solemn undertaking by the Prosecutor. The President of the ICC, Judge Sang-Hyun Song, will deliver remarks.

The ceremony will be witnessed by the Judges of the Court, the ICC Registrar, Ms Silvana Arbia, the ICC Deputy Registrar, Mr Didier Preira, the ASP Vice President, H.E. Markus Börlin, and the Court’s first Prosecutor, Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Also attending will be a large number of diplomats and other high-ranking guests, representatives of other international organisations in The Hague and members of the civil society.

The ceremony will be webstreamed live on the ICC website here:

Courtroom I:

* English: http://livestream.xs4all.nl/icc1.asx  
* French: http://livestream.xs4all.nl/icc2.asx

End

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Photo: IRIN

Some burial societies start funeral-related businesses like selling tombstones or flowers

CHITUNGWIZA, – In low-income suburbs like Chitungwiza, a dormitory town about 30km south of the Zimbabwean capital Harare, burial societies have long played an important role in helping their members meet the costs of burying family members, but increasingly they are helping to boost livelihood opportunities for the living.

Homadi Chibwano, 58, from St Mary’s in Chitungwiza, has chaired the Gule Burial Society for the last 10 years and is proud of having helped transform it from a savings scheme into a profit-making venture that employs three people.

About 15 residents of Malawian origin, mostly men, formed Gule in 1994 with the aim of preserving their burial traditions. The society experienced financial problems over the years and nearly collapsed during the economic crisis that afflicted Zimbabwe from 2000, but it now has 105 members, each of whom pays a US$5 monthly subscription.

Two years ago, Chibwano convinced the society’s members that a business venture was needed to improve their finances and ability to contribute whenever a death occurred. They decided to launch a brick moulding business that now generates an average profit of US$400 a month.

“Burial societies should no longer be about death only, but must help us live a good life as well,” Chibwano told IRIN. “Our main business remains assisting each of our members when they or their family members die, but we also need to improve our livelihoods while we are still alive.”

The society is now in the process of setting up a small grocery shop in the home of one of its members.

“Our bank account is growing steadily. Members can apply for a loan whenever they have pressing financial needs and our committee sits down to assess the applications,” said Chibwano.

“When we are big enough, we will consider sharing the profits on a regular basis,” he added.

Traditionally, burial societies in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the region have functioned as a means of informal insurance for low-income earners who rarely quality for life assurance policies and would otherwise struggle to afford the high cost of a funeral which can be as much as $2,700 in Harare.

Burial societies should no longer be about death only, but must help us live a good life as well

“The majority of the people who belong to burial societies are poor and unemployed. They don’t qualify for life assurance policies because they are not in formal employment,” said John Robertson, an economic consultant, who notes that burial societies as evolving in response to changing times.

“They retain their identity as social grassroots groupings guided by the need to provide decent burial to their members, but they are increasingly realizing that their role will be easier if they extend it to generate income to cater for their social needs,” said Robertson.

He added that burial societies’ commercial ventures would remain small and informal unless members received training and support to improve their management skills.

Medical loans

Nzira Yedu (Our Way) Social Club, another burial society in Chitungwiza, started a tombstone-making project eight months ago that employs two people as stone carvers but is yet to generate a profit. However, the society has managed to accrue enough savings from its 85 members’ monthly $10 subscriptions to extend loans for medical expenses.

“Hospital fees are beyond the reach of many. Even when a person is involved in an accident, we assist with loans,” said Raina Mhembere, Nzira Yedu’s treasurer.

She added that many of the society’s members were living with HIV/AIDS and regularly approached her for loans to cover the costs of treatment for opportunistic infections.

Burial societies have traditionally been dominated by older people, mostly men, but this is also changing. In Mufakose, a populous suburb about 10km southwest of the capital, young professionals are increasingly signing up.

Sylvester Chidziva, 20, a messenger with a law firm, was inspired to join Afterlife Burial Society after his father, a long-time member who had fallen on hard times, got a loan from the society so that Chidziva could do his A-level examinations three years ago.

“A number of my friends who have decided to join our parents in the societies also benefited from their loans,” he told IRIN.

Chidziva and his contemporaries are part of the drive behind using burial societies’ capital to start income-generating schemes. He hopes to help Afterlife start a funeral parlour in the future.

fm/ks/cb source www.irinnews.org